Ethics Of Flying Qatar Airways

Nightmare called Qatar Airways. For thanksgiving break we took our son out of High School and our Daughter out of college to go visit the grandparent in India. {We all are US citizens}. We only had 10 days for this vacation and thanks to Qatar Airways it took us 2 days to get there and 2 days to get back. Plus ½ a day to resolve an issue created by them. So our vacation of 10 days was reduced to 5 ½ days thanks to Qatar Airways. They had numerous chances to fix the issue and Qatar Airways failed miserably on every step to do the right thing. This is a BIG beware recommendation before anyone thinks of flying Qatar. Booking the tickets: In April we got an email advertising cheap fares from Miami to New Delhi and we booked our tickets online for travel in November. First time on Qatar Airways. Before booking out tickets we called the customer service 800 number and asked them if we would get free accommodations as the layover was 9 hours in Doha while going and 23 hours when returning. The agent told us that they will give us a hotel as the layover was over 8 hours. Based on that info we booked our flights. {AMADEUS: 5J9L72} In October we called the customer service number to get our hotel stay booked and was informed that we are not eligible for hotel stay and we can change our flights for 450 dollars each. We talked to the agent and basically her attitude was too bad we gave you the wrong information (1st Instance for them to fix / do the right thing) We decided to book our own hotel and called them again as I read on a blog that Qatar gives transit visas and was informed again that Qatar Airways will not get us transit visa and we will have to get them ourselves @80 US dollars per person. We did our own research and found out that yes we were eligible for transit visa and applied and got them without any charge. https://transitvisa.qatarairways.com/transitvisa/online/qrvisa/applyVisa/search. (2nd instance for them to fix / do the right thing or even give us the right information) Travel to India: We left Miami on flight number QR 778 on November 18th, 2016. Check in was simple and effective and the plane was clean, professionally staffed and comfortable. Everything went well until this flight started to experience some trouble and had to make an emergency landing into Zurich about 8 hours in. http://dohanews.co/qatar-airways-flight-from-miami-to-doha-makes-emergency-landing/. This experience was scary as midflight all the lights came on and we were informed we were making an emergency landing and within 20 minutes we were on the ground with fire trucks and ambulances on either side of the runway. We sat on the tarmac inside the aircraft which intermittently lost power for two hours with no updates from the cockpit or the crew. (3rd instance for them to do the right thing) We were then made to disembark in -5 degree off the plane into waiting busses and we all were travelling from Miami to Doha and hence had no warm clothes. The wait for the busses had all of us freezing off. {4th chance to improve customer service}. We were placed inside a holding area for close to 12 hours in Zurich. We were told no one could help us with our connecting flights but that an aircraft from Doha was on its way to get us. There were other flights leaving from Zurich to other destinations but Qatar was not willing to book us on those flights. I checked and there were seats available. {5th Chance to provide some level of customer service] Upon checking online, we learned that there was smoke in the cockpit and that was the reason for the emergency landing. What we found horrifying was that upon landing, we were made to sit inside the aircraft for 2 hours after that! Qatar had a flight go up in smoke three months ago but passenger safety was not a concern as we were sitting in a plane which could have gone up in smoke and there were emergency vehicles all around and we had no updates. This one is a BIG mess up in my eyes as we could be in a burning/ smoking plane. [6th mess up of Qatar} We were given some meal vouchers for all our troubles to be used inside the holding area in Zurich. We obviously missed our connecting flight to New Delhi but were assured that we would be taken care of on arrival into Doha. On arrival into Doha, we were informed that our flight to Delhi would be 11 hours later and were offered hotel accommodation. Our trip to India was only for 10 days – because of this delay, we were looking at having lost one whole day. After almost 2 hours of talking to ground personnel, we were put on an Etihad flight which took close to 8 hours to get to Delhi via Abu Dhabi. We were 11 people who were going to Delhi and all the ground crew wanted to do us was get us out of the area. The supervisor Masuma was professional but was not willing to help. So now we are all lying on the floor in the customer service area after 8 hours of flying, 2 hours on the tarmac, 12 hours in Zurich and then the 8 hour flight to Doha and all the waiting for boarding etc while they take a few hours to book us. In all, it took us 48 hours to get to Delhi from Miami. Qatar had a flight out and so did other airlines into our final destination but Qatar would rather nickel and dime us and make us stay in Doha for 11 extra hours {7th chance to do the right thing- See a theme here. If all goes well then Qatar is great but if anything goes out of the ordinary they have no clue about customer concern / safety or comfort} Finally we reached our final destination and the bags and disembarking was smooth and efficient. Travel back to Miami: The day before our departure from Delhi back to Miami, on the 29th of November, tried to check in for our CONFIRMED flight to Miami. We were unable to check in and no further information was given online. We called and were told that we were not booked for the flight and that our entire booking had been cancelled due to a “glitch in the system’. (8th chance – please inform us if you are going to cancel our flights) Our information was taken and the representative (Floyd and then Akash) on the line assured us that he would get back to us within an hour. When we did not hear back for 2 hours, (9th mess up of Customer Service) we made our way to the local office on Barakhamba Road in New Delhi where we were given the same information and were told to wait. After another 2 hours, we were told that our flights had been reinstated and that we had confirmed bookings for our return. So Qatar Airways “System Glitch cost us another ½ day to get our confirmed booking reinstated. While at the Barakhamba Office in New Delhi, I requested an upgrade for the Doha – Miami sector in return for the extreme inconvenience caused to us. We were told by the agent Ekta that we should request this at check-in. We did that and were told that the flight was full but that Doha should be able to accommodate us. Upon our arrival in Doha, we went to the ground staff and obtained our boarding passes. We were looking at a 19 hour layover in Doha and had reserved a hotel room on our own. We requested an upgrade at that time for our flight after explaining all that had happened to us. We spoke to the agent as well as the supervisor on duty who explained that they were putting in a note for us to be upgraded and that we should arrive at the boarding gate at least an hour before departure to confirm this. We did so and were then told by the check-in agent that we were not going to be upgraded.( 10th chance to do the right thing) We requested to speak with a supervisor who told us there was nothing he could do. There were seats available in Business Class but he could not upgrade us. (11th frustrating experience] He was rude and absolutely unwilling to help. (12th chance and by this time we had had more than enough of the shabby treatment by Qatar) Reaching Miami: Upon arrival into Miami, we discovered that 2 of our suitcases were damaged beyond repair. We waited for the ground clerk to help us. After waiting for close to an hour after a 15 hour flight, we learned that Qatar would only reimburse half of the price of our luggage! They wanted us to provide receipts showing how much we paid for the bags and then they would reimburse ½ of that value. Seriously we have to carry receipts for our suitcase purchases. We were so exhausted at that point, that we just left. (13th customer service mess up) Our experience has been so bad that we all to become aware of how Qatar Airways treats its passengers. Not only was little attention paid to our safety post the emergency landing, there was also no concern or arrangements to get us to our destination as soon as possible. On top of that, our return journey was made into a nightmare as well. Like I said in the beginning - Nightmare called Qatar Airways.

As a former employee who was employed in the head office for the airline I have seen how expat employees are treated and the abuse of power some people have at the airline. No HR safeguards and a culture of don't care about the welfare of employees leads me to say avoid the airline. Take your business somewhere more ethical!

Boycott Qatar Airways! https://www.facebook.com/BoycottQatarAirways

That is a great blog. You have put forth an amazing topic to discuss. It is really important as a human that you are treated with respect. When you work so hard you want people to appreciate it. Hospitality is a tough industry. However i have never seen an irritated qatar airways employee they always are always warm and helpful.

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that article from arabianbusiness.com. For instance, this sentence is a whopper: "Cabin crew across the world may not work on board airplanes once pregnant due to health concerns, although some countries allow them to work for up to three months into the pregnancy." In fact, FAs in the US (UA in particular) may fly through their 31st week.